Ancient Indian Education: An Inquiry into its Origin, Development, and Ideals c6.45

c6.45

Not very long after Hiuen-Tsiang's departure another Chinese scholar, I-Tsing, came to India. He was in the country from 673 to 687 A.D. His travels in India were not so extended as those of Fā-Hien and Hiuen-Tsiang, but he stayed ten years at Nālanda which was still a flourishing centre of learning. He says¹ with regard to it that the rites of the monastery were very strict and consequently the number of residents was great and exceeded three thousand. It had eight halls and three hundred apartments.² The lands in its possession contained more than two hundred villages. They had been bestowed upon it by kings of many generations. 'Thus,' says I-Tsing,³ 'the prosperity of the religion continues ever owing to nothing but the fact that the *Vinaya* is being strictly carried out.' The hours of work and of worship in Nālanda, as well as in other monasteries, were regulated by using clepsydrae.¹